How to move to sustainable consumption?

How to move to sustainable consumption?

Agenda 21, the programme of action adopted at the 1992 "Earth Summit" in Rio de Janeiro, noted that "Achieving the goals of environmental quality and sustainable development will require efficiency in production and changes in consumption patterns in order to emphasize optimization of resource use and minimization of waste. In many instances, this will require reorientation of existing production and consumption patterns that have developed in industrial societies and are in turn emulated in much of the world" (para. 4.15).

However, much remains to be done to understand the respective roles of public authorities, market actors, and consumers, in driving this change. Markets are increasingly demand-driven: producers shape their products in accordance with the changing expectations of consumers, for whom environmental and social considerations play an ever greater role. Price remains, nonetheless, a determining factor in the everyday choices of consumers, suggesting a need to better align economic incentives with sustainability.

More fundamentally, much of what we consume remains fueled by status competition and the quest for social recognition and acceptance: this suggests that in order to make progress in curbing excessive consumption and its impacts on sustainability, we may need to reconceive consumption not merely as a matter of individual choice but as one of social norms that is tied in with broader efforts to achieve social justice.

The "desires" of consumers, as distinguished from the "needs" that must be satisfied as a condition for a decent life, are largely shaped by the structure of markets, by technological change, by advertising, and by the physical environment, all of which are beyond the ability of the individual consumer to change. This calls into question the idea that sustainability can be advanced simply by changing the "values" consumers adhere to, or by improving awareness about the impacts of individual choices.

If social norms are such a big driver of consumption, how can these norms be made to evolve?

How can technological change be reoriented around sustainability, instead of the never-ending quest for economic efficiency, increased labor productivity, and profit maximization for technology owners?

How can markets be reshaped in order to favor the shift to more sustainable consumption patterns, sometimes referred to as "voluntary simplicity"?

How can governments, businesses and households contribute to the shift to greater resource efficiency and a "circular economy", and how can a better alignment of these efforts be achieved?

Roadmap to a resource efficient Europe, European Commission, Communication of the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, , COM(2011) 571 final of 20.9.2011.